Hanger 24 - Chocolate Porter

What's up everyone? I'm sure most of you are inebriated after watching the Superbowl. I'm not, surprisingly, but neither one of my teams was featured in the game so it had little to no meaning for me.

Tonight I'm drinking a Chocolate Porter by Hangar 24 Brewing out of Redlands, CA. I've seen Hangar 24's beers many times over the last year or so but never pulled the trigger on buying one. I don't know if it was the simplistic name (Chocolate Porter, Amarillo Pale Ale, etc) or the very simple label, I don't know. I've just never been motivated to really try one.

I watched a review over on San Diego Beer Vlog that got me intrigued. Not specifically for this beer, but just Hangar 24 in general. I lucked out and found Chocolate Porter at my local liquor store and figured, why not? 8% Chocolate Porter and it only set me back about $5. Not entirely a bad deal.

The beer poured out a dark brown color that when held up to the light has a lot of mahogany notes/ruby notes around the bottom of the glass. It's pretty clear which is somewhat surprising for a porter. There wasn't much of a head on this beer actually. Maybe a half a finger of a totally white head which vanished really quickly. Not much lacing left on the side of the glass whatsoever. 

The aroma is a bit of a let down to be honest. The bottle lists chocolate malt, raw cocoa nibs and whole vanilla beans. I don't get much of that at all. Maybe a little bit of sweetness from the vanilla. No chocolate or cocoa coming through on the nose. It smells like a porter but not a chocolate porter. I'm getting no roasted characters either. I do get quite a bit of alcohol. It's not overpowering, but it's more prominent than the cocoa. 

First sip sort of follows the nose honestly. I'm not getting any chocolate or roasted characters. Front of the tongue there's a little sweetness. Almost a creamy feeling. I'm guessing the sweetness is from the vanilla. Middle of the mouth this beer is very nice. Good mouth feel. Very creamy. Still no cocoa. There's a little bit of alcohol coming through. It's not bad. Back of the throat, still no cocoa, no roasted malt, nothing. It's a lot of vanilla, a bit of alcohol, creaminess.... but literally no chocolate.

Overall, this beer is very disappointing. When you call a beer Chocolate Porter, you should probably feature Chocolate in the beer. I'd actually be OK with this beer being called Vanilla Porter as that's almost entirely what I'm getting drinking this beer. That's not a bad thing by any means, but to call this Chocolate Porter is just wrong. It's got a good mouth feel and a pretty decent vanilla flavor, but other than that, nothing.

Rating - D+/C-. It's really not worth going out of your way for. There are a lot of better options out there. I'll definitely try some of the other Hangar 24 beers and hopefully, I'll be more impressed with them.

Wife's verdict: Tastes Like Beer.